The present disclosure relates to the provision of interactive services to one or more users over a television distribution system, including interactive gaming services.
Television signal distribution architectures have been developed to provide alternatives to traditional over-the-air broadcasting. For example, since the late 1940's, cable television systems have been used to deliver television signals to subscribers. Cable television systems distribute signals over optical fibers and/or electrical cables, such as coaxial cable. Further, wireless-cable systems have been developed using microwave signals as the distribution medium. Cable television systems permit the distribution of both typical over-the-air content, such as broadcast networks, and specialized content, such as pay channels and video on demand.
In a cable television system, television programming representing a number of individual television channels is coordinated at a headend for distribution to subscribers, such as endpoints within a particular geographic region. All of the endpoints serviced by a headend receive a common signal. Television programming representing a plurality of separate frequency bands is multiplexed onto a single cable. The television signal can be encoded as an analog signal or a digital signal. A set-top box (or “cable television tuner”) at the receiving location, such as a subscriber's home or business, provides access to a single channel of the multiplexed signal. Thus, a single channel included in the cable television signal can be tuned and presented on a corresponding device, such as a television or computer monitor.
Direct broadcast satellite (or “direct-to-home”) television systems also have been developed as an alternative to over-the-air broadcasting. As with cable television, direct broadcast satellite television provides a single, multiplexed signal that is decoded using a set-top box (or “satellite receiver”). The distribution medium between the satellite broadcaster and the set-top box, however, is a radio frequency signal, such as a Ku-band transmission.
Until recently, both cable and satellite television distribution systems were limited to receive-only. Because coaxial cables are capable of bi-directional transmission, however, additional services have been merged with cable television systems. For example, voice and data services have been offered over cable television distribution systems. Similarly, the cable television transmission path can serve as a back-channel for information sent from the set-top box to the cable television provider. Typically the bandwidth upstream from a set-top box to a headend is lower than the downstream bandwidth from the headend to the set-top box. Further, satellite television providers also have implemented bi-directional communication capabilities and are offering additional services, such as internet connectivity, in conjunction with the television signal distribution architecture.